The Space Race (1957-1975) Trivia Word Search

Who piloted Gemini 5 alongside Gordon Cooper on an eight-day endurance mission in 1965?

Along with Grissom and White, which astronaut died in the January 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire?

Who commanded Gemini 8, achieving the first-ever docking in space with an uncrewed target vehicle in March 1966?

Later politicians invoked a 'Sputnik _ _ _ _ _ _' to describe a sudden shock that jolts a nation into action.

Besides commander Pete Conrad and pilot Richard Gordon, who was the third astronaut on Apollo 12, and later walked on the Moon?

Neil Armstrong's famous first words on the Moon called it 'one small step for man, one giant leap for _ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

Apollo 12 astronauts landed near, and retrieved parts from, an earlier robotic Moon lander from which NASA program?

What was the name of the first US space station, launched in 1973 and visited by three astronaut crews?

What term does Russia use for its trained space travelers, equivalent to the American word 'astronaut'?

What was the call sign of Apollo 11's command module, which stayed in lunar orbit while the lander touched down?

Sputnik 1 was launched to coincide with a global scientific effort called the International Geophysical _ _ _ _.

Apollo 13's famous message about a problem was radioed to NASA's Mission Control, based in which US city?

The Space Race was primarily a Cold War rivalry between the United States and which other superpower?

Early US space capsules ended their missions by parachuting down into this vast body of water, unlike Soviet landings on land.

Who piloted Mercury-Atlas 7, becoming the second American to complete an orbital spaceflight, in 1962?

Which NASA probe became the first spacecraft to successfully fly by another planet, Venus, in December 1962?

Who set a long-standing record for the longest solo orbital spaceflight, aboard Vostok 5 in June 1963?

Who replaced the original command module pilot just days before Apollo 13's launch in April 1970?

Before any American flew in space, a chimpanzee completed a suborbital Mercury test flight in January 1961. What was the chimp's name?

Instruments aboard Explorer 1 in 1958 discovered bands of radiation around Earth, later named for this American scientist.

Who piloted the Apollo 15 command module while Scott and Irwin explored the lunar surface in 1971?

Who became the first American in space, on a suborbital flight in May 1961?

Besides commander David Scott, who else walked on the Moon during Apollo 15, the first mission with a lunar rover?

What nickname was given to the first group of seven NASA astronauts selected in 1959?

What was the name of the Mercury capsule that carried Alan Shepard on America's first spaceflight in May 1961?

Who solved earlier spacewalk exhaustion problems with an efficient EVA during Gemini 12 in November 1966?

Two Soviet dogs, Strelka and another one, became the first animals to orbit Earth and return home safely in 1960. Name the other dog.

Who commanded Apollo 9, the first crewed test flight of the lunar module, in March 1969?

Besides commander Wally Schirra, name one of the two other astronauts aboard Apollo 7, NASA's first crewed Apollo flight.

Who performed history's first spacewalk from Voskhod 2 in March 1965?

What was the name of the Soviet spacecraft that in October 1964 carried history's first three-person crew into orbit?

What was the name of the spacecraft that carried Yuri Gagarin into orbit as the first human in space?

Which Mercury astronaut was grounded by a heart condition, only reaching space in 1975 aboard Apollo-Soyuz?

Who became the second human in space and the first to spend a full day in orbit, aboard Vostok 2 in August 1961?

Which US robotic probe program sent back the first close-up television images of the Moon before crashing onto its surface in 1964?

Who piloted Mercury-Atlas 8 in 1962, later becoming the only astronaut to fly Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions?

Buzz Aldrin's official first name, rarely used publicly, was what?

This German-born rocket engineer, once a designer of a WWII missile, became chief architect of NASA's Saturn V rocket.

What was the name of the dog launched into orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in November 1957, the first animal to orbit Earth?

Which Apollo 17 astronaut was the first professional geologist to walk on the Moon?

The first woman in space, Soviet cosmonaut Tereshkova, flew aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963. What was her first name?

Who became the second American in space aboard Liberty Bell 7, and later died in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire?

Kept secret and known only as 'the Chief Designer' during his lifetime, this man led the Soviet Union's early rocket program.

What was the name of the Soviet probe series whose second mission became the first human-made object to reach the Moon, in 1959?

Who piloted the Apollo 17 command module during the final crewed Moon landing mission in 1972?

Who became the first human in space, launched by the Soviet Union on April 12, 1961?

What was the name of the uncrewed target vehicle Gemini 8 docked with in the first-ever docking in space?

Who was pilot of Gemini 7 and commander of Gemini 12 before leading the ill-fated Apollo 13?

Florida's Cape _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, beside Kennedy Space Center, was the launch site for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

What was the name of the world's first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957?

In 1968, these slow-moving reptiles aboard the Soviet probe Zond 5 became the first Earth creatures to circle the Moon and return alive.

Along with Alan Shepard and Stuart Roosa, who was the third astronaut on Apollo 14?

Besides Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, who was the third astronaut aboard Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon?

Who piloted Vostok 4, flying in tandem with Vostok 3 in August 1962?

Who performed a difficult, exhausting spacewalk during Gemini 9A in June 1966?

Who piloted the Apollo 11 command module while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon?

What nickname was given to the battery-powered vehicle first driven on the Moon during Apollo 15?

What is the name of the US government agency created in 1958 largely in response to Sputnik?

Who piloted Mercury-Atlas 9 in 1963, the final and longest Mercury mission, flying solo for over a day?

Besides commander John Young, who else walked on the Moon during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972?

Who commanded Vostok 3 in August 1962, part of the first simultaneous flight of two crewed spacecraft?

Who piloted the Apollo 16 command module while Young and Duke explored the Descartes Highlands in 1972?

Which chimpanzee orbited Earth aboard a Mercury capsule in November 1961, paving the way for John Glenn's flight the next year?

Who piloted the Apollo 14 command module while Shepard and Mitchell walked on the Moon in 1971?

What is the name of the Soviet launch site in Kazakhstan from which Sputnik 1 and Yuri Gagarin's flight were launched?

What was the nickname of Apollo 10's lunar module, named after a famous cartoon beagle?

Who became the first American to orbit Earth, aboard Mercury-Atlas 6 in February 1962?

Who commanded Gemini 6A during its historic December 1965 rendezvous with Gemini 7 in orbit?

One of the three Voskhod 1 crew members later died in 1967 as the first spaceflight fatality, aboard Soyuz 1. Who was he?

Who performed the first American spacewalk during Gemini 4 in June 1965?

What was the call sign of the lunar module that carried Armstrong and Aldrin down to the Moon's surface in July 1969?

What was the name of the powerful rocket family, still among the most powerful ever built, that launched Apollo toward the Moon?

Who piloted Gemini 11 alongside Pete Conrad, setting a crewed orbital altitude record in September 1966?

What is the common English term for an astronaut's 'extravehicular activity' performed outside the spacecraft?

What was the name of the Soviet spacecraft that docked with an American Apollo capsule in July 1975?

In October 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 3 photographed which part of the Moon for the first time, one never visible from Earth?

Besides Lovell and Swigert, who was the third crew member of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission?